This is the original version of my Prologue to, what I'm now calling AC: Iolair. I managed to find my original
Insignia for Project Iolair
file, so now I present it to you.
So basically, if you've read the old one- just disregard it! ^_^ ______________________________________________________
The Conspiracy
The Templars had attempted to take over the English Monarchy many times in the past, knowing that eventually they would grow a very powerful entity in world affairs later on. However the plots would often fail by the hands of the Assassins; from Empress Matilda to The War of the Roses, all were Templar attempts to gain leadership of the English Monarchy. The newest templar plot rested on a sequence of coincidental events coupled with complete secrecy; with the birth of Mary Tudor, the Templars knew Henry would not except as his rightful successor or child, and would leave her to her mother. At this point the Templars would use a contingency of agents disguised as servants and nannies to raise her as a tool of the Templar Conspiracy. When Henry VIII died everything went to his one male heir, Edward, who the Templars would slowly kill with poison over the course of six years, to make it look like his death was of natural causes.
Edward made it so his successor was his first cousin once removed, Jane Grey; with this Mary mounted a force of Templars to kill Grey, and take the throne. Within nine days of Jane receiving the crown Mary had her arrested and took the crown for herself. Now phase one of the plan was complete, now Mary went on to phase two she married the then Prince of Spain, Phillip II. The Heir they would produce would be ruler of both Spain and England and with the current Templar rule of Scotland would marry him to a Stuart woman to produce a Templar King ruling: Scotland, Ireland, England, Spain, and Portugal; a monster empire… a Templar Empire.
Bloody Mary
She ascended to the throne on July 19th, 1553, parading through the streets of London, using the Apple to gather frantic supporters in the streets, celebrating Mary’s presence. Soon after her ascension she instigated severe religious policies, cracking down on Protestants, attempting to undo what Henry VIII had done to England. Her greatest advisor on her reforms and persecutions was fellow Templar, Archbishop Reginald Pole.
Queen Mary
Her ways of oppressing the Protestants were brutal, often executing dozens at a time; it was to the point where the Apple could not mask the bloodshed. But the public continued to support her, through a combination of fear, and the Apple’s influence; but the Assassin’s managed to turn the public against her, and eventually draw her out. Mary was smart when it came to her public appearances, as well as her residence, keeping it heavily defended, and with a quick and easy escape route always in place, in case of an attack.
In May, an Assassin (an elderly Gregory Blythe) spy posing as Mary’s cook began to slip small morsels of influenza infected meat into her food, as she began to develop the symptoms, she became a carrier; Pole (who convened with her almost daily) began to come down with influenza as well. The time came on November 17th, 1558; the guards and Templar advisors left to retrieve the Apple, (to attempt to heal her) from an inner room of the palace. As the men left a second undercover Assassin, Gregory’s son, Jonathan, tailed them to the chamber. Gregory entered Mary’s bedchamber and broke her neck, making it seem she had passed from the disease. He then went to Pole’s chamber where he laid half dead, and suffocated him while he slept. A servant girl, finding that Mary was dead, quickly rushed to the men to alert them; they then left the Apple and rushed to her room, Jonathan then slipped in the chamber and took the Apple from its pedestal, put it in a satchel and left to rendezvous with his father in the courtyard.
Elizabeth’s Rule
With Mary dead, Elizabeth could now succeed her. Elizabeth first came into contact with the Assassin’s after they removed her from the home of the known Templar (and molester of Elizabeth), Thomas Seymour. From then she learned of the Assassin’s purpose, as well as the Templars. The Assassin’s hoped to one day have a supporter in the Royal family once again, so they stayed in close contact. When Mary became Queen, the Assassin’s tried to tell her that Mary was a Templar, but she refused to believe it; however after a few months into Mary’s ascension, she could not deny it. In 1554 Elizabeth secretly supported Wyatt’s Rebellion; giving funding for weapons; after it was put down, the Templars imprisoned Elizabeth and put her on trial. Templar Simon Renard devotedly supported her execution, which was overturned; but she was kept under house arrest, supervised from secret Assassin Ally, Sir Henry Bedingfield. Elizabeth reluctantly, authorized the Assassin’s to kill her sister Mary. In the end she was truly mournful of her sister’s death, but understood what needed to be done. The people were leery of Elizabeth at first, but after she made clear that she supported a policy of religious equality, the people had a much better affinity towards her. She made William Cecil, Mentor of the English Assassin's at the time, her head advisor; also appointing several other Assassin’s in her court, and among her favorites, such as: Robert Dudley, Walter Raleigh, and several others. She was also close friends with the man who rescued her from Seymour, Gregory Blythe, and his son John; Gregory gave Elizabeth the Apple, who used it to make England into cultural epicenter.
Queen Elizabeth
However her reign was plagued with problems, early on being Mary Queen of Scots; her uprising of a Catholic/Templar cause in northern England alarmed Elizabeth. After Mary escaped imprisonment in Scotland fled to England; and, still reluctantly, had the Assassin’s imprisoned her at the English Assassin Headquarters Sheffield Castle, before beheading her. Elizabeth was very woeful of her execution; in truth, Elizabeth didn’t want to be responsible for anyone’s death, after all her father had her own mother executed when Elizabeth was just a young girl, she was repulsed by such acts; but she understood the situation, and was content with it.
With England’s entry into the Eighty Years’ War in 1584, the Spanish were quick to declare war on them; four years later in 1588, the Spanish Armada was on England’s doorstep (it was considered revenge for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots). Elizabeth gave the Apple to the High Admiral Charles Howard, which he used to conjure a great storm, scattering the Spanish Armada up the English coast, slowly shattering the Spanish ships against the unknown coasts of England. It was a monumental victory for England, and was a frightening display of the Apple’s maximum power (the apple was nearly destroyed during the altering of weather, such a powerful natural occurrence to be affected, stretched the limits of the Apple).
In her remaining 15 years, she was plagued by the ongoing wars with Spain and Ireland, as well as tax problems. Elizabeth’s love and favorite courtier was William Cecil, his son was Robert Cecil; Robert was very opposing of his father’s allegiance to the Assassin’s (and Elizabeth’s rule), and at the age of 17 was approached by the Templars. When Elizabeth died, he pulled the strings so that James VI would be her successor; as her Secretary of State he had access to many personal documents. A friend and courtier of Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, (she would often put him on expeditions to find El Dorado, which was actually First Civ. Temple once sighted by the Spaniards, but was lost from the records) was elected as the Mentor of the English Assassin Brotherhood in 1595, after Cecil retired. With his best friend and partner, Richard Blythe (son and grandson of the famed assassins who killed Mary I) as his right hand man. The team were famed for previous actions, and adventure throughout Europe and the Americas. As many of her close friends in the court began to die, Elizabeth fell into a deep depression that would wear her health down, making her very sick. The beginning of March 1603, she felt assured her death would come soon; she asked that her Raleigh and Blythe meet with her to discuss what must be done. Information came out that the Templars had forged documents stating that Mary Queen of Scots’ son James VI was next in line to the English Monarchy. By the time this came out, it was too late to reverse what the Templars had done. Elizabeth gave the Apple to Raleigh, knowing she could trust him with its protection; for without the Apple the Templars couldn’t finish their plans for controlling England. Elizabeth died on March 24th, 1603 with Raleigh, Blythe, and her closest advisors at her side.
Plan B
Robert Cecil paved the way for the Templar Stuarts to come into power over England; many of the
James
Assassin courtiers had to go into hiding, and Raleigh was arrested on July 19th, 1603, merely four months after Elizabeth’s death; he was tried and would be imprisoned, before escaping in 1616. James had control of a Kingdom spanning the whole of the British Isle; he early on vowed to his Templar counterparts that he would retrieve the Apple, but Parliament was very stern on controlling James’ reign (at the time very Assassin controlled), so James came up with a plan. He tasked his fellow Templar Guy Fawkes with the scheme; the plan was to put a massive amount of gunpowder underneath the Parliament building, and detonate while Parliament was in session. Everything was set up for November, 5th, 1605; but the Assassins found out, and sent agents in to capture the conspirators. James was quick to act, sentencing the conspirators to death, as to not raise suspicion. Guy Fawkes later became a symbol of rebellion, because of the Templars hopes of altering the public’s view of History, and to make up for James' Folly. When Robert Cecil died in 1612, John Herbert (uncle of William Herbert III) was appointed as Secretary of State, but was killed five years later. His appointment would allow his nephew William to become a major figure in Templar politics in England later on. All through this time the Assassins attempted to break Raleigh out of the Tower several times, all unsuccessful. The Templars had no real respect towards James; his ignorance could have been foreseen, but as his reign went on, and the search for the Apple was all but abandoned. His Templar counterparts came to start calling him “The Wisest Fool in Christendom”, because he ruled England wisely but neglected his Templar duties. In 1618 Raleigh turned himself into the Stuarts to be executed, after his son was killed on an expedition in Venezuela; co-incidentally Richard Blythe was spotted in Lincolnshire by the Templars, and was subsequently poisoned to death via blow dart. James would die on March 27th, 1625, after a serious bout with dysentery. With his death, a new age of Templar rule was about to be unleashed.
The Wolf of the Stuarts
Right after his father died, Charles, James' second son immediately took control of England. Charles’ elder brother, Henry, was a devoted Templar; his devotion inspired young Charles to become a Templar as well, despite his physical handicaps. But when Charles was only 12 years old Henry died of typhoid (It is believed that an Assassin killed Henry, because Raleigh was quoted to have said, while in prison,” *chuckles*… one at a time”, after being informed of Henry’s death; it is even believed that Raleigh’s own son, Watt, had done the killing himself); a few years later Charles started training under his father’s favorite courtier, George Villers. Charles was committed to carry out his brother’s plans on ruling Britain.
At the age of 21 he was inducted into the Templar Order; in 1624 George and Charles went on a secret mission though France and Spain to locate the Apple (after intercepting a message from the Assassins outlining a ship carrying the Apple arriving in a Spanish port city). They returned failures; however Charles did meet his future wife while they were in France, Henrietta Maria. It was after this however, that Charles displayed a knack for political affairs, as well as being experienced in combat; it was this that allowed him to be promoted to a Master Templar (youngest in Templar History). When James died in 1625 Charles took over, and his first order of business was the assigning of George Villers to Chief Overseer on the Retrieval of The Apple of Eden; he then launched an Expedition to Cadiz, which ended up being a huge failure. The Apple was nowhere near Cadiz, so the expedition was abandoned. After this failure, Parliament petitioned Charles to impeach Villers; but Charles would not dismiss his mentor and favorite advisor, so instead he dismissed Parliament. Charles was prepared to launch a new expedition, but Parliament refused to pay for the expedition, until Charles spoke up for former grievances. When Charles refused, Parliament enacted their “Tonnage and Poundage” act (which takes away from the amount of money the royal family take take from the national taxes); enraged, Charles dissolved Parliament. In late 1626, a ledger was intercepted from the Assassins that outlined the Apple being shipped aboard a French treasure ship from Rochelle, France to a colony in the Caribbean. So Charles ordered the Navy to begin capturing all French treasure ships in the English Channel; the Apple was nowhere to be found, and the only outcome was an undeclared war with France. So Charles then sent Villers to besiege Rochelle, France; and after 5 months Villers had lost half of his force, and some French informants found no trace of the Apple, so he withdrew. Hundreds of Assassins and their families were massacred at the hand of the Templar Officers in Villers' army.
Charles took a step back, and cleared his head; he decided to retrace his steps and look to history for an answer. The Mentor of the Assassins during the time of Elizabeth’s death was Walter Raleigh, if anyone were to take it after her death, it would be him. However when the Templars arrested him in 1603 the Apple wasn’t found on him, at his residence, or with his wife. So he looked to his children; Damerei, Raleigh’s first son died shortly after he was born. His second son, Watt, did become an Assassin; however he died in 1618 during Raleigh’s final expedition up the Orinoco River, after being shot while attacking a Spanish Fort. History has subjected Watt to being: ignorant, undisciplined, and a womanizer; but this is just one example of how the Templars have changed the words of history to discredit certain people with Assassin allegiance (much like the stories of Raleigh’s early days). So they looked to Raleigh’s third son Carew, who was only an infant when Raleigh was imprisoned, and was only around 12 when his father was executed. Raleigh had no standing orders on whether Carew was to be trained as an Assassin or not, but it was decided he was not to be made an Assassin. Either way, Charles secretly sent agents to Carew’s residence and ransacked it, they found no trace of the Apple and upon a very violent round of questioning he stated he truthfully that he did not even know what the Apple was. So they released him, this would lead to a deep hatred of the Stuarts, heavily opposing them during the Civil War.
Charles then found out that a mere three days after Raleigh’s execution, his right hand man, Richard Blythe, was found by the Templars and poisoned to death. So they looked into his children, he had two sons and a daughter. They were William, John, and Ann; Ann was the youngest being born in 1591, she was the director of Assassin activities in Sheffield, and was married to William Creswicke in 1615, he was a master blacksmith, as were the Blythe’s aside from being Assassins. John was the middle child born in 1588; he became an Assassin, and took over his father’s position as leader of the Assassins in central England. William was the eldest being born in 1586; he did not become an Assassin, however was Assassin affiliated. Charles then figured that Richard would probably have entrusted his eldest son with it, and the fact that he wasn’t an Assassin would make it even better, since the Templars would suspect it to be in an Assassin’s possession. Charles also found out that William’s son, William II or Iolair, had standing warrants for harassment of government officials, theft of government property, and collaboration with smuggler rings; this was enough to slap a treason charge on him, and kill them on the scene. So when Villers returned from his failed siege at Rochelle, Charles personally tasked him with taking care of William and his son, and retrieving the Apple.
End of Prologue...
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